I’ve now had the Kobo Aura HD for a few days. After trying out various eReaders over the years I really thought this would be the one, since it’s the first to combine a high res screen, touch, and a good built in light. But got off to a bad start when I needed to connect to the internet just to start using it. eReaders are supposed to be better than books, not worse. Also, I had to download an update right away, this for a product that was just 1 day old!

Once I started using it, I liked the quality of the screen overall and the light is fantastic, but to read PDF’s is a pain, and most of my books are in PDF format. For example, to switch to landscape view takes several taps, then if you close a book and reopen it the Kobo “forgets” your layout preference. When you go from one page to the next, you are started at the bottom of the next page, so you have to tap, tap, tap and drag, then wait for the refresh just to switch pages.

I’m looking right now for a good program to reformat and re-flow PDF’s for the Kobo’s screen. If I can’t find an easy way to do this I’ll have to return it. Here are a couple views of the device: